i can't seem to tell them apart anymore
by McChanged
Summary: They can't seem to stop lying.


So. I sat down to write the next chapter of LoI, got one word in and then this came out. I might write another chapter about the rest of Glee, including Mr. Shue, if asked. Review.

12/10 - I've recently been posting on AO3 under the name _Mamihlapinatapai,_ and while doing such, have been doing some editing. Today, because I'm crazy, I've decided to update everything on here. The changes won't affect the story line, it's just to clean everything up a bit.

* * *

Noah Puckerman tells lies like he breathes, but not to Finn. _Never_ to Finn.

It would be easy to walk over there when Quinn tells him she's pregnant. To just man up and tell the truth for once, but Finn was there when his dad left, and the night he can't remember that involved vodka and the state line, and he's pretty sure a conversation that started with _I slept with your girlfriend_ wouldn't end with _lets go play Halo_.

He misses when it was just the three of them. Finn and Quinn and Puck. When she was both of theirs and neither of theirs, and they weren't a remake of a bad teenage movie. But most of all he misses when he could look Finn in the eye and not feel like the traitor he was.

They were nine and beautiful and fine, so they made a pact. Bros before hoes, they had said, with the secret handshake they had created years ago, and it's not surprising that Puck breaks it, but, and no one will admit it, so did Finn.

He broke it over and over again on the nights he blew Puck off to make-out with Quinn, and Puck may not say it out loud but that hurt just as much as his dad leaving. At least that's what he tells himself, when Finn's sitting next to him nursing a beer, and Puck still doesn't tell him.

(Because it might make him a bastard, but until someone blows this shit wide open, he's not telling Finn, because losing his best friend, well he just might not survive that.)

-O-

Rachel Berry lies, but only to herself, so obviously she's less of a hypocrite than anyone else.

The first time she gets a slushie to the face and her bra shows through her shirt, she sits in the bathroom for the next two class periods and fails a Chemistry quiz.

And really, that's what pisses her off, because then she's giving Puck and the rest of this school exactly what they want. She's not following the rules of the social hierarchy so they intend to knock her down a peg, and she's never been one to give anything willingly.

For the next two years, she brings an extra pair of clothes and holds her head high and whispers lies to herself in the dark of her room. Because they can't, and _they don't_, hurt her. Never will.

But most of all, she convinces herself that Finn doesn't flinch every time she touches him.

She'll get out of this town, and prove them wrong, and at their twenty-year reunion she'll walk in and everyone will be star struck.

(She's a horrible liar, and she still sits in the bathroom during her lunch period once in awhile.)

-O-

Quinn Fabray doesn't lie.

Well, the Quinn Fabray that goes to church with her parents, and prays every night, and is the president of the freaking celibacy club doesn't lie.

But the one that got drunk for the first time in sixth grade, and the one that had sex with her boyfriend's best friend, and the one who has no idea where she's going. That one doesn't even know what the truth looks like anymore.

She's all smoke and mirrors, and never let anyone too close in case they realize that she's nothing but a hypocrite.

Because in all honesty, she doesn't know who she is, or what she believes and she certainly shouldn't be advising others on those topics.

Getting pregnant was an accident, sleeping with Puck, not so much. She wasn't drunk like she claimed, and the scale said two pounds less, but for once she didn't want to be so freaking perfect. And what spells damned better then cheating on her loyal boyfriend.

Even Hester Prynne wasn't that much of a whore.

Lying to Finn comes to her in a moment of desperation, because sooner or later her life will shatter into a million pieces, but later sounds far better.

(He believes her, because that's the kind of guy he is, and she wonders if she should change her name to _Jezebel_.)

-O-

Mercedes Jones is a Baptist.

Which doesn't mean she can't lie.

No guy has looked at her since third grade when she gained fifteen pounds in two months, and she's okay with it. It doesn't bother her. Whatever.

But Kurt is nice, and funny, and doesn't care that people whisper when he sits next to her at lunch, and suddenly she wants to kiss him so badly it physically hurts.

Rachel's a jealous bitch, and Tina's nothing but a follower and Kurt is not gay.

(Yeah.)

-O-

Tina Cohen-Chang wears black and rocker boots and has a stutter. But only because she wants to.

She doesn't even remember what the speech was supposed to be about, but she does remember the look she got from the teacher, and it's better than any of the looks she's ever got at home. Pity is better than indifference, and she'll take it where she can get it.

It's easy, until a kid in a wheelchair smiles, and she doesn't want to keep the secret anymore.

He's just so honest and earnest, and she may be a liar, but she's not cruel. The look he gives her when she tells him is enough to let her know that he thinks she probably is.

She goes back to stuttering, because she doesn't have a best friend anymore, and really wasn't that the whole point.

-O-

Kurt Hummel is gay.

That much everyone knows. Because really, who can ignore sparkles and a fedora.

He's never tried to be anything he's not, but his mom's dead, and his dad still looks at him like he wishes he knew him.

Sometimes, when he lies on her floor with the drawers open, he pretends she's still alive. He pretends that he still has a living parent who knows about things like moisturizer and the relaxing quality of good manicure, who would want to hear about Finn and Glee practice.

The thing is: he loves his dad, loves to look at his face when he comes home from football practice covered in mud.

But that's not what he lies about. Because no amount of words in the dictionary would be able to convince people he's not gay.

He convinces people that he doesn't care about the _fag_ that gets spray painted on his locker twice a week. But most of all, he convinces himself that Finn doesn't flinch every time Kurt touches him.

-O-

Finn Hudson can't lie.

He saw firsthand what lying does to someone, because there's a hidden bottle of scotch under his mom's bed that she pulls out when boyfriend number _whatever_ leaves.

He won't be that guy, so he takes the third grade approach and just doesn't say anything, if he doesn't have something nice to say.

And people like Puck and Quinn mistake that for stupidity. Like, because he doesn't tell Rachel to stop freaking touching him, it makes him some kind of idiot.

He's not stupid, but Puck is his best friend and Quinn is his girlfriend, and he has no choice but to believe that dumbass hot tub story, because there's nothing else to do.

Finn Hudson doesn't lie, until he catches them in the Home Ec room covered in cupcake batter, and seriously, didn't he hear about that girl getting pregnant in the bath on the news?

-O-

Artie Abrams can't do anything else, so he lies.

But honestly, he doesn't care that everybody figured he'd find his own way to Sectionals, or that people look at his disability as if to say well _my life sucks, but at least I'm not that guy._

Tina's pretty and smart, and when she looks at him he doesn't feel like rolling himself into oncoming traffic. She doesn't pity him, and maybe it's because of her stutter, but that doesn't really matter. He thinks that's probably the reason he asks her out.

And then she tunrs out to be normal, and it's blinding, this betrayal. So he breaks her heart, because it's only fair. Sure he's a bastard, but he still has his pride.


End file.
